truck driver

owner operator driver

diesel mechanic

driver manager

inspector

PAM Transport

You work under GM schedule which is 3 week work week with only 2 days off until you get 2 days off. You work 12 to 14 hr days. Pay is good but if you have kids or married you will never see them. They don’t care about ,seniority . They don’t post new ,available routes. So you’re stuck on nights forever while they give days to the next guy who walks through the door. People sit in their trucks burning fuel all day or napping in the bunks with nothing to do but play on their phones or sit in their cars when they have no route. Just getting paid for free for 8 hrs. They might have to do a shuttle to GM and sit for Hrs there. Dispatch is cool but they don’t spread hrs around (Example) some drivers don’t have routes and don’t get 50 hrs a week  but many do working 10 to 14 hrs everyday, but on Saturday they run the same guys to do shuttles that have over 50 hrs but let guys who don’t sit for 8 hrs making free money then they go home and see their family’s while you sit at GM and get home to late to see yours. A lot of lazy drivers who just want to get paid and do nothing. Most fresh out of Trucking school. It’s Easy work but long hrs. You run mostly Michigan,Kentucky,Ohio Areas for Delivery and Reloads then back to GM with parts. Good place to work but They could improve on a lot of things to make it great. First make seniority a must.2nd post new available routes on the board so drivers can bid on it so their not stuck on routes they don’t  want for every and never see their family’s. 3rd on Saturdays make those who have no routes and less then 50 hrs run shuttles. Not the guy who runs 50 to 70hrs in 5 days. 4th stop drivers from stealing hrs. This happens a lot. Routes that only take 10 hrs but somehow always ends up 12 to 14 hrs so they don’t have hrs to run on Saturdays. 5th management needs to come out of their office occasionally to see how things are going and socialize with drivers to get feed backs on how to improve things . Your running a company not warming a seat. Safety department is awesome . He knows his stuff and has yrs to back it up. He socializes with drivers and answer questions you may have. He’s always available. Shop Department sucks. They need a night crew because they are never open after 2pm if you need anything ,so night drivers are always calling road rescue. Equipment is new but many guys trash the insides not leaving it they way they got it from their slip seat driver. Many don’t do pre or post trips properly. They log in and put themselves in pre trip then park their cars and clock in then roll after 15 minutes is up. Which is the time they finally get to the truck. At nights they drop their trailers then drive off and park. Not checking anything . Money is good but if you want a life it might not be the best place for you. Everyone is different and it’s really about what’s best for you and your family. Your choice! 

PAM is a very good company, but it is over the road driving which can be a problem for a driver when problems at home arise that require more time to resolve than is afforded by the one-day-at-home for each week on the road (up to a maximum of five days at home) format that is fairly standard in today's trucking industry.

Any issues I had with my employment at PAM were not the fault of PAM Transport, but were simply the result of things beyond my control that did not fit into the OTR format described above.

PAM certainly did not force me to buy the 30-year-old RV I live in. Indeed, it was my employment at PAM that made that purchase possible in the first place.

As to a "typical work day," it is OTR driving so there is not really anything typical from day to day. Each day brings new challenges that can actually be a lot of fun if you view the work as a living puzzle.

As to "what you learn," truck driving is an on-going learning experience that can keep your mind active. No matter how much you think you know, the experience will always provide new things to learn.

What is PAM management like? Overall PAM management is quite good. If there is a complaint, it might be that PAM is a very large company and the complexities of doing business on that scale can sometimes leave employees feeling a bit lost in the proverbial shuffle. All in all, though, PAM's managers do a pretty good job in their efforts to keep things balanced between their customer's and employee's needs.

The "hardest part of the job" is another standard feature in OTR driving: waiting. Sometimes a driver just has to sit and wait until the dispatchers and planners can find the next load for him (or her).

The most enjoyable part of the job? Pointing a 70-foot-long, 30-ton tractor/trailer down the road and just driving across country. Especially when your biggest worry is where to stop for your next meal or DOT mandated break. Indeed, in many ways it is akin to being an astronaut where the cab and sleeper are your space capsule and the open roads are the space you must traverse in order to reach that next point of exploration.

I was a bit scared to work for PAM given all the bad reviews, but couldn't find work and didn't really have a choice. The C-1 driving school was a joke and if you are lucky will barely teach you enough to get your CDL. Half the trainers will not teach you anything. So the worst part is the training so I understand some bad experiences with people who were not trained well, but you can request to go out with another trainer (although you don't make much during training). Some trainers are good if you are lucky enough to get them. I was glad to get a team mate who had some experience and helped me learn as I worked. I made $850 my first week out. It's possible to make $1,000 a week right out the door although they take about $100 out of your check for escrow and school and taxes seem to be high. Personally I don't want to work for them because teams suck, even though the money was good I wouldn't recommend team driving unless you have a friend to go in with. People quit all the time. While I was there I saw people whining about not making money but I always had plenty of work. If you deliver loads late, refuse loads, get an attitude with dispatchers, or ask for a lot of home time then you will get bad loads. PAM highers a lot of degenerates who then blame the company for their own failures, but the company itself will pay you if you are willing to work, then when your year is up go someplace better. They also like to t-call loads a lot and give the open highway miles to their friends but you still make a good pay check even while getting screwed in this way. It's best just to not answer the phone until you get away from a PAM yard. Some weeks are slow, and sometimes you won't make money but most of the people complaining about low pay just aren't suited for otr trucking. 

If you go to a real school and work for pam its not a bad beginner company if you can handle teams. The solo pay is some of the lowest in the industry, but team pay is pretty good considering they have faster trucks than a lot of companies and keep you running, as well have a lot of long trips (if they don't t-call you). If you go through C-1 it might be a bit of a challenge considering you probably weren't properly trained and must learn 90% on the road. 

I earned my CDL through PAM under a 6 month work contract, and don't regret doing so. 

I ran dedicated runs for essentially my entire time at PAM due in part to my home location in PA. 

The pay could absolutely be better, especially for dedicated lanes. It was honestly the worst part of the experience. You'll definitely make more doing OTR as opposed to dedicated though. There are weekly performance bonuses that you can earn, but some lanes don't get those despite the time sensitive nature of the lanes.

The equipment was quite new, my first truck was a 21 Pete 579, and the next a brand new 579 made in oct 23. The fleet is being refit with networked dashcams monitored by a third party company, so get ready for that "big brother" experience if you have/develop bad driving habits.

PAM has a very extensive support network in place for their drivers, so that's good, and from my experiences they won't leave you stranded on the side of the road on purpose. 

The insurance programs you get are quite fair, and honestly pretty cheap to maintain even with the low pay.

They do have a lease to own program that the drivers I talked to seemed pretty okay with. So do with that what you will.

I’ve work at PAM for four years. Workdays are not ever dull. I work in the office on 2nd shift. The group I am part of is a team, when one person needs help, everyone jumps in. I do not ever feel like it is me against the room. I thought that environments like this were just fantasy or belonged to Tech companies, but I was wrong. The work environment does present challenges, everyday there is some aspect that is fresh, new customers or locations we service. Management, I have a direct supervisor and way up the chain from them is clear, if I find an issue and I need to address it, when presenting facts supervisors listen and respond accordingly. I have not ever felt like a supervisor was too busy to address my concerns, now they may be busy, and I have to wait my turn to speak to them but that is expected. Management’s focus is how it should be, on their own people. This is one of the most relaxed places I have worked. You are expected to do your job, that’s what you expect right? I show up, do what is asked of me and I am treated with respect, and I get a check at the end of the week, what’s not to love. In the last 4 years I have had some personal challenges and management has reacted very positively and made sure that I was able to deal with what I needed to. 

It is what it is. They pay for your CDL and you are contracted to drive for them for a year. I learned to safely operate a tractor trailer through this company. I had a trainer for 30 days on the road. He was super cool and we remain friends 7 years later. The mileage pay is awful. Don't expect to make mortgage and car payments working here. It's a tradeoff. Most firms require at least 1 year experience. If you're going to do it my advice is to do your year and move on. They mostly run southern routes so staying out of the snow is possible. When I worked there in 2007 they had excellent Blue Cross Blue Shield healthcare. I was really surprised. I think I had a 15 dollar copay and 5 dollar prescriptions. I never received big bills from my Dr. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't all bad. They are basically paying you to gain skills needed to move on to a better paying job. Most of their facilities were dirty and gross except for their facility in Tontitown. They keep that place very clean. Bring your sandals and plenty of disinfectant hand wipes!

Change takes time. We have had new management since June 2020 and things are slowly getting better. There is still much change that needs to happen but we are on the right path. 

Drivers are home daily and drivers almost always have the same route every day. 

If your looking at working in the office you need to know that transportation is a fast paced and sometimes stressful environment especially when dealing with 120 different personalities. You will see your Driver every day and you must have the ability to work with others and communicate clearly. The shifts are 9 hours plus 1 hour for lunch. 

There is actually little voluntary driver turn over. Most of the turn over is due to drivers calling off often, being late to work every day or damaging too much equipment. Those that choose to leave do so because it's long hours and often 6 days a week at least 3 weeks of the month due to GM working a rotation of 2 Sat on and 1 off.  If you show up to work and do your job you will do just fine and make great money doing so!

If you drive for pam trans you have the option of Company or Owner operators division as a company driver you should ask about a dedicated account you will find the miles are better then running from location to location PAM needs to expand to a western 11 states fleet as i now reside in Oregon and would love to drive for them again on a dedicated lane
Your day starts with Pre-trip Inspections a Qualcomm  link to find out HOS and destination Fuel stops Etc then you drive your hours when you reach your destination your treated with respect by the receivers or the shippers but its based on your respect to them as well.
Pay is on Par with your CPM which is usually $0/52cpm to $0.79cpm If you needed home time they will make it happen.
this company does NOT hound you with safety or other things most mega carriers will this creates less stress for the driver and makes the company run smoothly like a well oiled machine

This company is for brand new truckers. They paid for my cdl so I have to fulfill my obligation by working for them until my contract is up. Anyone working here not under contract is probably a lease/owner. Company drivers don’t make much money at all, even if you are teaming. The different dispatch shifts don’t communicate with each other on what’s going on so sometimes I was explaining the same thing to many people. Other times I was sent somewhere only to be asked an hour later by someone else why I was going there. It can be frustrating, but I will say that I did not ever feel disrespected or talked down to. Most of their drivers, including mentors, have under 1 year of experience and I believe most of their office staff has little to no experience also. They have plenty of freight so even as a solo driver I had loads all the time.  You can request dedicated or local lanes after working there for 3 months. It wasn’t hard to get home time but when I did, it was never on time. 

Only go to pam if you are a experienced cdl holder if your thinking about getting your cdl through them then prepare yourself to go bankrupt during your first year of employment with them I went through there cdl training and contracted to drive for a year with the Hope's of at the least being able to pay my Bill's but I was wrong they say you will make on average x amount of dollars but that's false just like anywhere else you are at the mercy of whoever plans and dispatch your loads there is a complete lack of communication between  your dm and dispatch even though thacomplete  communication is required of you over all the company would be great for you if you are single and second living with someone you will only make money with them if you team drive solo you can forget it I stayed as long as I could to try and fulfill my agreement but ended up leaving due to financial ruin please set your bar low for this company and dont make the same mistake as me thinking you will have stability during your tenure

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 364 salaries reported	$3,440 per week
Owner operator driver 15 salaries reported	$3,000 per week
Diesel mechanic 8 salaries reported	$32.00 per hour
Driver manager 14 salaries reported	$54,443 per year
Inspector 8 salaries reported	$18.25 per hour

Working at PAM Transport: Company Overview and Reviews

PAM Transport

PAM Transport Ratings

Popular jobs at PAM Transport

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected